Archive for October, 2012

Are you looking into starting a new virtual tour business? Well, let me tell you there is really nothing to it. All you have to do is come up with a really good business name that sticks out (i.e. Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles), a cool company slogan (optional but recommended) get all of your paperwork filled out, such as your, doing business as (dba), etcetera, open a new business bank account in your virtual tour company name, and voila (whala)! Very easy right, just as I said nothing to it at all, and now it’s time to start making money.

WELL NOT QUITE YET!

If it were only that easy every two-hundred and sixty-six thousands small businesses that start-up each year would be very successful, and the other four thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine business that close each year, would still be in business. As I stated earlier, starting small business or a virtual tour business in this case doesn’t require much (No, I wasn’t leading you on) but building your virtual tour business from the ground up is where all of the hard work really happens. I believe the first step to building your virtual tour business is having a VERY STRONG SUPPORT TEAM, let me repeat that once more; the first step to building your business is having a VERY STRONG SUPPORT TEAM! Without a strong support-team, to have your back during those business deals, your business is honestly only as good as its name.

Now, I know when you think of a strong support team the first thought that comes to mind is those beautiful people that you have to pay, i.e… Employee’s/sales rep, accountant, lawyer, insurance agent, banker, a professional business coach, and so forth; but that is not quite what I meant. Now, of course, without the paid support it’s going to be pretty complicated to run your business successfully, the paid support is without a doubt the heart, brains, and soul of your company and don’t you ever forget that.

HOWEVER, WHAT ABOUT THOSE PEOPLE YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY!

Your wife, children, mother, father, cousin, uncle, aunt, friend, etcetera, I think you get the picture but if you didn’t those people in your life that really matter the most to you. Building any business is hard enough but not to have the support of your loved ones that are supposed to believe in you the most, in my opinion is the beginning of a business disaster. If you do not remember anything from this blog, remember that.

Next, as I mentioned earlier you are definitely going to need a paid support team; every business needs a trusted team of advisers and specialist to help guide their organization towards financial success. From the girl in customer service that answers all of your business problems to your management team that you hired to make sure your business continue to prosper, each and every last one of your team members are a vital part of your virtual tour business, they keep the dollars rolling in or racking in, which ever you prefer.

Luckily, for Visual Intermedia Photography & Marketing a Houston Texas Virtual Tour Company we have the best Virtual Tour family and team of advisers in the nation of our industry, our RTV family is the best hands down.

When the time comes to commit to your virtual tour business, you just can’t do it all by yourself, although it’s perfectly normal for a start-up business to try and do as much themselves as possible to save money, but eventually the time will come that you will need help.

Another very important aspect to building a successful virtual tour business is knowing what you are about to get yourself into, knowing your market. You can have the best support team and the best business idea in the world but if you don’t have even the slightest idea about the industry you are looking to grow your virtual tour business in is really about, you are doomed for immediate failure.

Let me ask you this, would you allow a mechanic that has never worked on a car before and has no idea what they are doing to fix on your vehicle? I didn’t think so, so what makes you think that someone would hire you or buy your virtual tour services if you have no idea what you are doing. Don’t think about it, its common sense. Learn you market, study your market, be your market but if you just dive into it without first checking how deep the water is, you may come out worse than when you first dove in.

Everyone believes that they have the best business idea and you may be right, but as my mother use to say, “Not every idea is a great idea”. Maybe your true calling is something that you already have a great deal of sense for, for instance; if you have been cooking for a business for quite some time and you know your way around the kitchen and the industry, maybe you should open up a small restaurant. Think about it, by starting a virtual tour business in something that you are good in, you are already a couple steps ahead of your competition. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you wouldn’t have a successful retail business if you’ve been a cook your whole life, I am just saying that before you open up a retail chain for designer wear make sure that all of your T’s are crossed and your I’s are dotted.

Last, but definitely not least (and I believe I saved the best for last) have courage, have heart! As I mentioned earlier in my blog, having the best idea just isn’t enough to get the job done, some of the best ideas for a business go right down the toilet likes yesterday’s meal. Why you ask? Because so many of us have what it takes to build a successful business, we just lack heart. As we know without heart is weakness and with weakness comes unfortunate failure.

Every successful business in the world begun with just a thought, a dream, an idea, even some successful businesses started by mistake, but I can guarantee you this, they also all started with fear and doubt. What if this business doesn’t work? Who is going to buy anything from me? There is no way I will ever be as successful as Donald Trump is, are just a few of the thoughts and questions that run through our doubtful minds. You have to learn to stop second guessing yourself, because you are designing your own failure by doing so, who’s to say that you couldn’t one day be on FORBES magazine as one of the most richest people in world. I know, you’re probably saying no way will that ever happen to me. I want you to think about this, do you believe that Oprah Winfrey or Bill Gates thought even for a moment that they would end up in such a magazine, probably not, but it didn’t stop them from trying and I am sure they didn’t even try they just stuck with what they know best and it worked. How will you ever know if you keep running from your dream and continuously making excuse, after excuse, after another excuse?

The time to stop making excuses and procrastinating is now; get your butt off that couch and get started working on your dreams today. And when or if you need a helping hand with marketing your business online, and you are in Houston, Texas, or any of our surrounding cities or counties look us up, VISUAL INTERMEDIA PHOTOGRAPHY AND MARKETING and give our marketing department a call, we are here to help, we want to be a part of your team.

VIP&M offers the finest Houston virtual tour photography and marketing company, we specialize in real estate photography and marketing, business/commercial photography and marketing, full motion video, fully integrated 360 panoramas, business leads integration , property mapping, V-slides, plus over ninety more new features (too many to name in this blog). With our “NEWLY (2012) JUST RELEASED” FUSION VIRTUAL TOUR SYSTEM, we guarantee you are going to love it just as much as we, and hundreds of other businesses and real estate agents (nationwide) do .

Rather you are selling your home, your car, just acquired a new listing or still working on that old listing, looking to promote your company/business, or maybe you want to provide insurance documentation just in case of a natural disaster , VIP&M can help. Stop procrastinating go ahead, pick up that phone and dial 1-877-929-8476, or log on to our website at

I struggle to find balance in my life so I had the brilliant idea last week that since I had so much to get done with our virtual tour business, I would set a daily agenda and outline what needed to be done during which hours to successfully run our Illinois virtual tour company as well as my personal life. Now this may work well for some people but it backfired for me. I had this great calendar set up last week that told me when I would blog and when I would eat and when I would make cold calls and when I would sleep. By the end of the week, I felt like a complete and total failure because I did not stick to the schedule AT ALL!! In retrospect, I actually accomplished a great deal last week but because I did not do it in the hours I had planned to, I felt defeated.

It is often difficult for someone who is used to working set hours to move into the world of being self employed. One of the challenges and benefits of being self employed is that you set your own hours and you decide what you are going to do within those hours. For some people, this is freeing but for others it’s a recipe for disaster. Many entrepreneurs thrive in this freedom because they weren’t great at fitting in someone else’s box. Many entrepreneurs have struggled with ADHD – whether inattentive type or hyperactive type – and found that the structure of the corporate world was actually counterproductive for the way they were wired. This was certainly the case for me!

If you have the luxury of structuring your own day based on what works best for you, then it’s important to identify whether you work best from an agenda or a list of objectives. The challenge to being agenda driven in our virtual tour company is that if a Realtor calls wanting us to photograph a residential real estate virtual tour for them, they usually need it done right away. If I get a call from a healthcare company wanting a proposal, then creating that proposal immediately takes precedence over anything else.

What I realize about myself is that I work MUCH better with a list of objectives than I do with a pre-set agenda. I work best when I can focus on a task for a while and take frequent breaks. I scrapped the agenda and went back to a list of the things I need to get done today. There are some things that must be done within certain time frames – for example making cold calls isn’t very effective at night when no one is in their office – but for the most part, working from a list allows me to do what I do best when I am at my best. Working from a list of specific objectives causes me to get more done and also provides me with a concrete sense of accomplishment as I cross things off the list.

Shooting Tour Track jobs for RTV virtual tour company has never been more rewarding. Last week I was sent an order to do a virtual tour and photograph South Texas Vet Specialist Hospital. As some shooters may confess, “You really don’t get the details of the job until you arrive at the location.” After stepping into the Lobby and taking a quick glance around I felt a cold rush of sadness. It was evident that these ill pets and their owners were going through some difficult times.

After meeting with my contact and discussing the details, I dropped the tripod down into place and began to explain to those in the lobby what was about to take place. Now getting a few kids out of a hotel pool for an image is one thing, but convincing grieving pet owners they don’t want to be in a photo takes a little more finesse. I then moved on to the v-tours behind the closed doors. Howling cats, barking dogs and veterinarians dashing in every direction made for an unusual shoot. I never dreamed I would be in a veterinary operating room wearing scrubs and taking pictures. Thanks Jacque and RTV!

I own a hospitality management company and I have been experimenting with several virtual tour technologies over the past five years until I found RTV virtual tour company. I had already invested around $4000.00 playing with photo vista, voyager one shots, image maker, visual tours, pano weaver, and the list goes on and on. All in all they were all low virtual tour software solutions that too me forever to learn and initially they all claimed that they were simple and easy to use.

About a month ago I was almost ready to give up when I finally discovered RTV’s popular Fusion virtual tour system. The sales staff was very helpful and throughout the training process their skype support and technical support team were always there for me. Within about one week from nearly giving up everything I felt that I finally had not only a virtual tour system that really did what they claimed it would do, but also was stuffed with more bells and whistles to keep my clients and I more that satisfied. The stuff is literally amazing!! Push one button for this. Push one button for that. RTV’s Fusion’s motto should just be, “Fusion, – One Button”.

Since I started I’m constantly seeing the team update their virtual tour software making the virtual tour building process faster and easier. I can now send out my photographer on a job and he will photograph, build, and upload a complete virtual tour with many panoramas, still images and even full motion video in under an hour. I had no idea creating virtual tours could be this simple!

I would recommend this to anyone that wants a good virtual tour software product right from the start and not mess around like I did for five years trying to save a buck or two. The RTV virtual tour system is not cheap, but everything is of the highest quality and they guarantee it for life too. They don’t leave a piece of virtual tour building hardware out of their package like many companies do to make the initial start-up costs seem smaller. They are truly a top-notch virtual tour company to work with. Thanks RTV!!

My name is Kim Harrison. I live in CA and I had discovered RTV online back in April before the new Fusion virtual tour system was officially released. I’m sure like many of you too out there sitting on the fence, I did not think I could build a success virtual tour business by myself. There were so many options out there. One shot lens technology, straight video tours, still image only tours with a pan and scan. There were companies that were hosting only and looked to offer little to no support on the start up. There were companies that just sold software and you were completely on your own. Then there was RTV. Ahhhh…so refreshing. Finally a company that could work with you at any level of expertise, gave you the “Straight Talk” and helped get you going. The sales team was very gracious with their time and wished me well, no pressure.

A few months later I met a young man, a website builder whom I contacted with some issues I was having with my sites. One thing led to another, and we have become business partners.

One of the first things Dexter did was to caution me on my spending habits, in the sense that I wanted the best tools to grow our business, (marketing.) One day I said, “Dexter, check out this virtual tour company.” It was the RTV website and Fusion was live…and AMAZING!

Dexter was quiet, staring at the screen for a few minutes, flipping through the pages. All he said was “We need this…NOW!”

I am telling you, we were pretty jazzed to see our virtual tour equipment arrive, especially the camera. The people at the other end really walked us through the process. Ben got the virtual tour software set up on my PC over the phone, then we were scheduled for our over the phone training. In the meantime We did a ‘360 virtual tour’ of my living room. The virtual tour looked better than my room does in person! We were hooked.

Next was our training session. It was fun and our personal trainer made sure we weren’t going to mess up our work. Cool. And he worked with us late, on a Friday no less!! Seriously. WOW!

Before we knew it we received a phone call from Jacque in the RTV Tour Track department. Apparently we had already ‘passed’ the Tour Track qualifications and we received our first virtual tour dispatch with a $250 payout! RTV said they would send us virtual tour jobs but they also told us not to expect them or count on them but here it was. Another WOW moment.

Dexter did the photos, and I was ready to work on the virtual tour with him, figuring between us we would know what to do. As luck would have it, Dexter had a family emergency. After meeting an obstacle (which turned out to not be a big deal) and was quickly resolved by a phone call, I uploaded my first virtual tour all by myself.

I also want to say that I called in after hours (the 3 hour time difference), but even the operator knew how to help me! Ok, so I can’t stop saying great things about this company.

After we finished our Tour Track job RTV sent an email to us with congrats and a little note that they would certainly be using us on more of the jobs they get from their national accounts. They said they had 35 when we signed up back then and I’m guessing have more now.

There just has not been a bad experience with this virtual tour company; just the opposite. Maybe I am a little biased, being from the Midwest myself, but I don’t think that’s it. RTV is simply a great company all around and if you have looked around the web at virtual tours, it’s pretty obvious that your search ends with RTV. TONS of features backed by great service, amazing startup team, marketing, leads, and the list goes on. Thanks RTV and best wishes to all of you. Our website is next!